Quotes From Birmingham Jail Chapter 1 Summary

Entry 1: Chapters 1-4
Summary: In the first few chapters of the book we are introduced to the main characters and main plot points of the story. Thurgood Marshall is a well known lawyer in the NAACP (National Association for the Advancement of Colored People), who is famous for acquitting falsely accused black men. We learn about a variety of cases he took part in, and are introduced to his most recent case involving the three Groveland boys and Norma Lee Padgett, a married, white woman, who accused them of rape. In the first few chapters we learn more about the kind of person Marshall is. He recalls many stories of his own experiences with the racially biased police system, one of which was when he was set up and arrested for drunk driving.

He had gotten into some trouble with the Bolita so he left town for that reason as well. Mccall and his team search for Thomas, they ultimately find a letter that he wrote to his wife that explains where he was, find him, and then shoot him dead. His death was ruled lawful. The Groveland Boys were beaten by police officers one night, “Shepherd’s vision was blurring, and Irvin was drifting in and out of consciousness. As best they could they denied having anything to do with the missing white girl.” (King, 125) Franklin Williams (a lawyer at NAACP) was assigned to the Groveland Boys case and brought his associate Horace Hill with him to meet with the Groveland Boys and begin preparing the case. The FBI conducted an investigation which showed the KKK was controlling the black population in Groveland. The trial started on August 25th. In chapter 11, Dr. Geoffery Binneveld reported that he doubted Norma’s rape allegations, saying “If I were asked if the woman was raped, I would have to answer ‘I don’t know.’” Norma gave a very dramatic testimony that seemed to have been coached. There was little evidence to support the allegations, but with Norma’s testimony, the jury convicted all three boys. Two would get the Electric chair and one would be sentenced to

Shepherd and Irvin had 90 days until their execution, so Marshall decides to appeal the case immediately, which is accepted. Norman Bunin wrote an expose in the St. Petersburg Times stating that Norma’s Testimony did not make much sense. He interviewed a young man who had spoken with Norma the morning after the alleged rape, who claimed that Norma did not appear to be in distress and said the men did not hurt her. L.B. De Forest was an undercover agent who moved to Lake country in order to collect more evidence for the case including the fact that Norma had recently given birth to a white baby. “-that is, a decision authored by the Court as a whole rather than by a specific judge- and thus the convictions of Samuel Shepherd and Walter Irvin overturned.”(King, 219). The NAACP team continues to gather more lawyers and evidence to support their case in the retrial. Marshall was woken up in the middle of the night with news that Mccall had shot both Groveland boys, Shepherd was dead and Irvin was in the hospital. Mccall claimed the Shepherd needed to pee, so he got out of the car, and then hit Mccall over the head with a flashlight and took off running. The FBI did some investigations of the scene and the evidence makes people suspicious of Mccalls